Low Energy Wireless Communication Systems and Methods for Medical Devices

1. A method performed by a medical device for transmitting data packets using a communication protocol defined in accordance with the Bluetooth low energy protocol, the method comprising: removing select data fields from a data packet defined in accordance with IEEE standard 11073-20601 to form a modified data packet; determining a length of the modified data packet; determining whether the length of the modified data packet is greater than a predetermined maximum length of data packets under the Bluetooth low energy protocol, as defined in Bluetooth Core Specification version 4.0; when the length of the modified data packet is greater than the predetermined maximum length of data packets defined under the Bluetooth low energy protocol, partitioning the modified data packet into a plurality of individual data packets, wherein each of the individual data packets includes a portion of the modified data packet; and transmitting the individual data packets via an antenna in accordance with the Bluetooth low energy protocol.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the select data fields includes a header field.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein removing select data fields from the data packet defined in accordance with IEEE standard 11073 includes removing a data field that includes error detecting code data.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising: calculating new error correcting code data after the removal of the select data fields; and storing the new error correcting code data in the modified data packet.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the error detecting code data includes data for a cyclical redundancy check.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining a total number of individual data packets based on the length of the modified data packet and the predetermined maximum length of data packets defined under the Bluetooth low energy protocol; and partitioning the modified data packet into the total number of individual data packets.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising determining the total number of individual data packets by dividing the length of the modified packet by the predetermined maximum length and rounding the result up to the nearest integer.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein partitioning the modified data packet further comprises appending each of the plurality of individual data packets with an indicator of the total number of individual data packets and a transmission order indicator.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising leaving data from other, non-removed fields of the data packet defined in accordance with IEEE standard 11073 unchanged to form the modified data packet.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the data packet includes code for commanding another medical device to perform a function.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the data packet includes one or more measurements taken by the medical device.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the data packet includes code for a response to a command received from another medical device.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising, when the length of the modified data packet is less than the predetermined maximum length of data packets under the Bluetooth low energy protocol, transmitting the modified data packet.

14. A method performed by a medical device for transmitting data packets using a communication protocol defined in accordance with the Bluetooth low energy protocol, the method comprising: removing a header field and at least one other data field from a data packet defined in accordance with IEEE standard 11073-20601 to form a modified data packet, the data packet including one of: code for commanding another medical device to perform a function; one or more measurements taken by the medical device; and code for a response to a command received from another medical device; leaving data from other, non-removed fields of the data packet defined in accordance with IEEE standard 11073-20601 unchanged to form the modified data packet; determining a length of the modified data packet; determining whether the length of the modified data packet is greater than a predetermined maximum length of data packets under the Bluetooth low energy protocol, as defined in Bluetooth Core Specification version 4.0; determining a total number of individual data packets based on the length of the modified data packet and the predetermined maximum length of data packets; when the length of the modified data packet is greater than the predetermined maximum length of data packets defined under the Bluetooth low energy protocol, partitioning the modified data packet into N individual data packets, wherein each of the N individual data packets includes a portion of the modified data packet and N is equal to the total number of individual data packets; and transmitting the N individual data packets via an antenna in accordance with the Bluetooth low energy protocol.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein removing at least one other data field from the data packet defined in accordance with IEEE standard 11073-20601 includes removing a data field that includes error detecting code data, and the method further comprising: calculating new error correcting code data after the removal of the header field and the at least one other data field; and storing the new error correcting code data in the modified data packet.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the error detecting code data includes data for a cyclical redundancy check.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprising determining the total number of individual data packets by dividing the length of the modified packet by the predetermined maximum length and rounding the result up to the nearest integer.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein partitioning the modified data packet further comprises appending each of the plurality of individual data packets with an indicator of the total number of individual data packets and a transmission order indicator.

19. A medical device for transmitting data packets using a communication protocol defined in accordance with the Bluetooth low energy protocol, the medical device comprising: a processor module that removes select data fields from a data packet defined in accordance with IEEE standard 11073-20601 to form a modified data packet, that determines a length of the modified data packet and that, when the length of the modified data packet is greater than a predetermined maximum length of data packets under the Bluetooth low energy protocol as defined in Bluetooth Core Specification version 4.0, partitions the modified data packet into a plurality of individual data packets, where each of the individual data packets includes a portion of the modified data packet; and a transceiver that transmits the individual data packets via an antenna in accordance with the Bluetooth low energy protocol.